Foxton has historically been affected by flooding on a regular basis, something Horizons Regional Council is hoping to rectify. Photo / Horizons
“Abandoned, or at least so it seems,” said Te Awahou Foxton Community Board chairman John Girling in response to Horizons Regional Council’s flood mitigation plan for Foxton.
“It is pretty grim reading. I am exceedingly disappointed. It appears they have abandoned us yet again.”
The plan was attached to the board’s February agenda and in early April Horizons, in an extraordinary council meeting, decided to reallocate government money meant for Foxton flood mitigation elsewhere.
Though an amendment was adopted asking the CEO to look into future funding plans for Foxton in its Long-term Plan.
“Palmerston North has a 200 year protection plan and recently the prime minister suggested we may need one for 500 years. But Foxton only gets one for 50 years. It is simply not good enough,” Girling said.
Of course there are great needs elsewhere in the region because of Cyclone Gabrielle.
“I am so grateful that that cyclone did not hit here,” Girling said, “If it had we would have been in dire straits now.”
Regional councillor Sam Ferguson said it is not all bad for Foxton.
“There were some very serious challenges, from technical barriers to the fact that the government funding had to be used within a certain timeframe that we could not meet for Foxton. Then there were underestimated cost issues for projects.”
Saving more houses from flooding is the objective of the Te Awahou Foxton Flood Mitigation Plan.
Constraints of money, staff, and time, technical challenges, and access to land, are among reasons behind a drastically reduced flood mitigation plan. Then there is all the work council staff need to do in the areas where Cyclone Gabrielle had a big impact, taking time and money away from Foxton.
Horizons’s group manager catchment operations John Roygard said the West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand is always challenging.
“We have seen many years of flooding and we are keen to fix that.”
Problems in Foxton include the fact the township is low-lying, has high groundwater levels and the fact that in heavy rain events the current stormwater network cannot cope. The township is at the bottom of the flow of rain and stormwater down the Tararuas and in the last big storm hundreds of millimetres of rain fell in the ranges.
Government funding released during Covid has allowed Horizons to explore options thoroughly and attach a price tag to them, said Roygard.
For example, taking the water from rural properties south and then into the river was looked at but will not work, the team discovered. Add to that the May 2022 review by Horizons and the fact that costs are going up fast, a different approach was sought.
“We wanted a longterm solution without involving rural land.”
With greater involvement by HDC the floods happening upstream and the stormwater issues within the town are now a priority and the plan is to focus on a series of small resilience works. This includes more culverts, a few penstocks, as well as a sheet metal-piling wall in the true right bank of King’s Canal between Avenue Rd and Cook St – to cover a one in 50 years flood.
“We have talked to landowners upstream about storing some of that stormwater in heavy events and releasing it slower.”
The flooding situation has gone through various plans to solve, but the recent floods have helped the team understand what is going on, Roygard said.
He said Horowhenua District Council has been very involved in the plans as they would like to combine work on stormwater with work done to the network within the town to create greater capacity.
Horizons voted during its extraordinary meeting on April 6 to take money $2.3 million unallocated central government co-funding from Foxton Climate Resilience project, to Rangitikei and Manawatū resilience projects, much to the disappointment of councillor Te Kenehi Teira.
“If it doesn’t do anything, that is not good for us,” he said.
Upgrading of the Moutoa floodgates was also mentioned, estimated to cost $2m, and had some urgency attached to it, based on engineering reports. The spillway protects farmland situated between the gates and the ocean from flooding.
Horizons still owns a block of land at the eastern end of Cook St, where a wetland is planned, which could help clean up water before it goes into the river. That could also catch some stormwater coming down the hills.
While the money reallocation decision was being made, Cr Alan Taylor wanted to give assurance to Foxton locals: “We are not kicking the can down the road.”
Te Kenehi Teira and Sam Ferguson voted against moving money meant for Foxton to elsewhere, while Fiona Gordon chose to abstain on the issue.
The one in 50 years flood protection plan will reduce the number of homes affected in the Foxton township to 83, mostly those on Purcell and Union St, according to the plan presented to the Te Awahou Foxton Community Board.
Roygard said the team has looked at a number of options for Cook St and Purcell St, but there were technical challenges, such as lack of space for a pipe big enough to do the job.
To be effective a set of smaller measures is now being proposed. This means installation of more culverts and penstocks to the northeast of the township. The true right bank of the King’s Canal will get a sheet-piling wall, between Avenue Rd and Cook St.
The plan requires considerable buy-in from local landowners. Talks with two landowners regarding installation of penstocks on their land are under way.
The Te Awahou Foxton Community Board has asked for more information and details on how the town will be protected from flooding in future.